N8,000 bribe: Lagos intensifies effort to arrest corrupt LASTMA officer

The Lagos State Government has intensified effort to arrest a junior officer with Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Mr. Michael Ekundayo, for allegedly demanding and collecting bribe. Ekundayo was allegedly caught on video collecting N8, 000 bribe from a motorist. Sources have, however, said that law enforcement agents may now go after Ekundayo’s relatives to assist them in producing the suspect who is now at large. A source, did not want his name mentioned, told National Mirror that efforts to arrest the suspect had not yielded any result ever since the video spread like wildfire on the social media. Ekundayo, a Grade Level 4 officer, who National Mirror learnt lived on 11 Fadeyi Street, Ilupeju, was caught redhanded demanding bribe from a motorist who is suspected to have deliberately broken the Lagos Traffic Law to expose corrupt law enforcement agents. The source said: “Since Saturday, we have been looking for Ekundayo. Our provosts went to the house where he was said to be living before the incident. His mother said he had not becoming home since that day. But it is unfortunate that LASTMA lacks the power to arrest, it is the police that will do that. By the time his wife and other relatives are arrested, he will make himself available for arrest.” Ekundayo had accused the motorist of beating the traffic light on Alfred Rewane Road, Ikoyi, Lagos. He was said to have stop the motorist at the Golden Gate Chinese Restaurant Junction, where an amateur video of his transaction with the offender was recorded and sent to the iWitness platform of Channels Television. After having demanded N8, 000 bribe from the motorist, the suspect accompanied him to the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) to withdraw the cash to pay the bribe. According to the video footage, the motorist presented N4, 000 to the LASTMA officer, but he rejected it and was angry that the motorist broke the agreement to pay N8, 000, but later took the money after expressing his feelings, unknown that he was being recorded by hidden camera. Meanwhile, the state government has promised to punish the officer, expressing regrets that the suspect could embark on such a disgraceful act in spite of efforts to train and retrain LASTMA personnel. In a statement signed by the Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, the government said it would take appropriate action against the suspect who, according to him, had not been found since the news broke. The government expressed regrets that the suspect could embark on such a disgraceful act in spite of the consistent training being given to all government officers and public servants in the state